The Department of Energy’s Advanced Manufacturing Office (AMO) has turned to 3D printing to reduce development costs for wind turbines. AMO has started building molds made from six-foot-tall, 3D printed sections in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Sandia National Laboratory and TPI Composites.
In order to make the molds, AMO borrowed Cincinnati Incorporated and ORNL’s groundbreaking Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM) 3D printer. According to ORNL, BAAM is 500 to 1,000 times faster than most other industrial 3D printers and also has a build space that is several times larger than those of most competing printers.
As the Department of Energy explains, the wind blade mold is first designed using computer-aided design (CAD). Designers use a CAD file of the final blade shape and use it to produce the mold, which is optimized for 3D printing. Additional features can be added such as assembly holes and heating air ductwork. BAAM then extrudes composite material following the CAD file, printing mold sections up to six feet tall. Once each of the mold sections is complete, a layer of fiberglass laminate is applied to the mold to create a surface compatible with traditional blade-making processes. The fiberglass is then machined in order to make a custom shape.
